Description

This collection of essays examines the struggles of the people of England with the collapse of civilization as they knew it. As the country fell into civil war and near anarchy, the people sought out in word and action how to preserve what could still be preserved or to create new political, religious and social certainties. The authors discuss individuals or groups who were soldiers, writers or statesmen of the Civil Wars or the Interregnum, people who were at the centre of power or in more humble and localized circumstances. All of the authors take their inspiration from the work of Austin Woolrych, whose own books and articles focus on these very questions. This volume is published in his honour.show more

Review quote

'The festschrift for Austin Woolrych is an exemplar of the genre; an increasingly rare case of one which gives readers a real sense of what the recipient is like and has achieved, and unites a set of good essays which are actually related to her or his own work.' History Today 'The volume is equally strong on both the 1640s and 1650s and embraces political history, military history, and the history of ideas ... it pulls together an impressive range of work by younger scholars many of whom were completing, or had just completed, their doctoral theses at the time of writing. In quite a few cases, these papers were the forerunners for major monographs that have subsequently appeared, and this gives the volume considerable value as an overview of recent research in the field.' Historical Journalshow more

Table of contents

Frontispiece; Preface John Morrill; Austin Woolrych: an appreciation Lesley le Claire; 1. Secret alliance and Protestant agitation in two kingdoms: the early Caroline background to the Irish rebellion of 1641 John Reeve; 2. Of armies and architecture: the employments of Robert Scawen John Adamson; 3. George Digby, Royalist intrigue and the collapse of the cause Ian Roy; 4. The iconography of revolution: England 1642-9 Ian Gentles; 5. The casualties of war: treatment of the dead and wounded in the English Civil War Barbara Donagan; 6. 'A bastard kind of militia', localism, and tactics in the second civil war Sarah Barber; 7. Cromwell's commissioners for preserving the peace of the Commonwealth: a Staffordshire case study John Sutton; 8. Colonel Gervase Benson, Captain John Archer and the corporation of Kendal, c.1644-55 C. B. Phillips; 9. Repacifying the polity: the responses of Hobbes and Harrington to the 'crisis of the common law' Glenn Burgess; 10. Equality in an unequal commonwealth: James Harrington's republicanism and the meaning of equality J. C. Davis; 11 John Milton and Oliver Cromwell Blair Worden; 12. From pillar to post: Milton and the attack on republican humanism at the Restoration Nicholas von Maltzahn; 13. 'They that pursew perfaction on earth ...': the political progress of Robert Overton Barbara Taft; 14. Locke no Leveller G. E. Aylmer; A bibliography of the writings of Austin Woolrych, 1955-95 Sara Coombs; Index.show more